1. Field of Invention
The subject invention is generally related to safety and surveillance equipment for aircraft and is specifically directed to a comprehensive multi-media flight recording and playback system for commercial aircraft wherein data and/or video images may be collected, monitored, transmitted, stored and replayed for event reconstruction.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Aircraft safety is of ever increasing importance. This is particularly true with respect to commercial airlines as more and more people and freight are moved in this manner. The airways are becoming increasingly crowded with traffic. Global tracking systems are now in place to monitor the flight of the aircraft from the moment it lifts off until it safely lands at its destination. Radar and global positioning systems are commonplace both on the aircraft and at the ground tracking stations. All of these electronic systems have increased the overall safety record of commercial traffic to new standards as the number of miles flown continues to escalate at an alarming pace.
In addition, the on board avionics, including electronic monitoring and diagnostic equipment, particularly on large commercial jets, continues to evolve giving both the on board crew and the tracking station more complete, accurate and up-to-date information regarding the condition of the aircraft while in flight. Flight recorders long have been incorporated in order to provide a record of each flight and in order to provide critical information to aid in the determination of the causes of an accident or malfunction should one occur.
One of the greatest safety investigation inventions for the commercial airline industry has been the crash protected flight recorder, more commonly called the “Black Box.” Today, flight recorders for accident investigation are mandatory pieces of equipment in civil aircraft. Flight recorders have changed in design and airline usefulness during the past 40 years.
Efforts to require crash-protected flight recorders date back to the 1940s. The introduction of Flight Data Recorders (FDR), however, experienced many delays, first being mandated in 1958. The initial requirement for these data recorders was to record the actual flight conditions of the aircraft, i.e., heading, altitude, airspeed, vertical accelerations, and time. These early devices had very limited recording capabilities. The five analog parameters mentioned above were embossed onto a metal foil, which was used only once. With just five parameters, however, there were not enough recorded data for meaningful accident investigation. Consequently, in 1987, these recorders became unacceptable to most government regulatory authorities and additional parameters were required.
Although most major airlines replaced these old technology recorders long before required by law, many of the first generation recorders are still flying in older model aircraft. The remainder of these foil recorders will soon be unusable, since the metal foil is being quickly depleted.
Further, the flight data alone cannot provide all accident information needed by investigators. An advanced technology covering the recording of sounds in the cockpit, crews' conversations, air traffic control communications and aircraft noises is required. This initiated development of the second next generation of recorders that use magnetic tape as the recording medium. The first product to use this new technology was the cockpit voice recorder (CVR). In 1965, all commercial operators were mandated to install a CVR, which would retain the last 30 minutes of crew voice communications and noises within the cockpit environment. The magnetic tape required very complex fire and crash protection.
The Fairchild CVR, Models A100 and A100A, manufactured by L-3 Communications Aviation Recorders, are examples of second generation recorders. These have become the most widely used CVR in the world and have now been in service for more than 30 years. More recently, this same “tape” technology has been expanded to the flight data recorder. This second-generation FDR records additional flight parameters while meeting higher crash and fire protection requirements than the first generation FDR's, including operational data for engines, flight controls, flaps and other operating components to fully assist accident investigators. By the mid 1980s, all newly Type Certified (TC) aircraft were being fitted with recorders that could capture between 17 to 32 parameters.
In 1990, the third generation Solid State Flight Data Recorder (SSFDR) became commercially practical. The SSFDR, Model F1000, was the first certified flight recorder to use this new technology. The Solid State CVR (SSCVR) became available in a 30-minute format in 1992 and in a two-hour format in 1995.